Peter Sagan Wins 2019 Tour de France Stage 5 After Several Near Misses
Peter Sagan was the best of the remaining opposition after the pure sprinters had been dropped on the climbs that littered Stage 5 of the 2019 Tour de France through the Vosges.
Despite Team Sunweb controlling the peloton for most of the run into the finish, Michael Matthews was boxed in when the sprint began and could only manage seventh. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) finished safely in tenth and retained his overall lead in the race.
#TDF2019 a happy @PolittNils after a great top ten result! @LeTour pic.twitter.com/YOEZ7Vmx9o
— KATUSHA (@katushacycling) July 10, 2019
This is a huge result for Sagan in terms of both his Tour de France and his overall season. With just a few victories and limited support in the sprints at the Tour, a stage win for Sagan was a desperately needed. Today, Sagan showed clear authority over the reduced bunch.
“You just have to be patient and the victory will come,” Sagan said at the finish.
“I have to say thanks to all my teammates, they did a very great job. Finally a Tour de France victory came for us, it’s very nice. We controlled the race all day, on the flat part until the finish.”
“I did my best and it came. If I don’t win, then everybody will ask me what is missing. You can see, nothing is missing. It’s just everybody needs good luck and a good day for a win.”
Sagan was so strong at the end but I’m glad to see his team get some credit for the hard work they put in in driving the peloton to its limit to nullify attacks and tire the sprinters legs. Certainly Sagan was right to praise them.
Interesting tidbit, 176 riders finished once again – this edition continues with 0 abandons.
2019 Tour de France Stage 5 – Last Kilometer
Tony Gallopin catches an umbrella
Julian Alaphilippe takes a shortcut
2019 Tour de France Results
Stage 4 results
1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 4:02:33
2 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Team Jumbo-Visma
3 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott
4 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
5 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC Team
6 Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis Solutions Credits
7 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb
8 Nils Politt (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
9 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
10 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep
General classification after stage 5
1 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 18:44:12
2 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:00:14
3 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:00:25
4 George Bennett (NZl) Team Jumbo-Visma
5 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:00:40
6 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos
7 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos 0:00:45
8 Enric Mas (Spa) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:46
9 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:50
10 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC Team 0:00:51
